1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to computers and software, and more particularly, to providing merchant advertisements to consumers utilizing a network.
2. Description of Related Art
As known in the art, the Internet is a world-wide collection of networks and gateways that use the Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol suite of protocols to communicate with one another. At the heart of the Internet is a backbone of high speed data communication lines between major nodes or host computers consisting of thousands of commercial, government, educational, and other computer systems that route data and messages.
World Wide Web (WWW) refers to the total set of interlinked hypertext documents residing on hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) servers all around the world. Documents on the WWW, called pages or web pages, are written in hypertext mark-up language (HTML) identified by uniform resource locators (URL) that specify the particular machine and pathname by which a file can be accessed and transmitted from node to node to the end user under HTTP. A web site is a related group of these documents and associated files, scripts, subprocedures, and databases that are served up by an HTTP server on the WWW.
Users need a browser program and an Internet connection to access a web site. Browser programs, also called xe2x80x9cweb browsers,xe2x80x9d are consumer applications that enable a user to navigate the Internet and view HTML documents on the WWW, another network, or the user""s computer. Web browsers also allow users to follow codes called xe2x80x9ctagsxe2x80x9d embedded in an HTML document, which associate particular words and images in the document with URLs so that a user can access another file that may be half way around the world, at the press of a key or the click of a mouse.
One type of document that consumers access are merchant advertisements. The recent rapid growth of information applications on the international public packet switch computer network such as the Internet suggest that the public computer networks have the potential to establish a new kind of open marketplace for goods and services. As web pages are used internationally, it is highly desirable for manufacturers and merchants to be able to advertise their goods and services to as many potential customers as possible. Currently, on the Internet the primary way to advertise is through the use of advertisement banners which consist of trademarks, text, buttons or images comprised of hyperlinks, which transport a user to a particular website to access information regarding goods and services.
Unfortunately, as the Internet provides public access to advertisements on a merchants server, this access can allow the merchant to collect information that the consumer may wish to keep private. Until now, network systems have lacked the ability to provide merchant advertisements to consumers and still preserve the privacy of the consumer while providing statistical demographic information to the merchant.
Certain objects, advantages, and novel features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description that follows and in part will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned with the practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.
To achieve the advantages and novel features, the present invention is generally directed to an apparatus and method for providing privacy of consumer identity and protected information concerning advertisements accessed by the consumer, while still providing marketing and demographic statistics to the merchant regarding the consumer advertisement accesses. The guiding principal of the present invention is to preserve the privacy of the user/consumer. Any data that is shared between the user consumer and the merchant or commerce server must respect the privacy of the consumer. No private or personal information about the consumer is shared with the merchant. While the commerce server keeps demographic statistics, there is no private or personal information that can be traced back to an individual consumer. Thus while preserving consumer privacy, the consumer-to-merchant advertisement communication system still collects and provides information to the merchant regarding the access of merchant advertisements that the merchant could not obtain through simple web advertising. This marketing information provides a unique value to merchants who subscribe to the merchant communication system of the present invention.
In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, a consumer user interface browser program allows a consumer to interact with a consumer-to-merchant advertisement communication system. A consumer user program provides the consumer with a desirable alternative to unsolicited e-mail messages and banner advertisements. The consumer user interface program also allows the consumer to determine when the consumer wishes to view particular merchant advertisements. The consumer user interface program provides the consumer easy control over what advertisements the consumer is receiving and allows the consumer to easily subscribe and unsubscribe from advertisements from either particular merchants or categories of products and services.
The commerce server application receives the request for services from the consumer user interface program and provides the requested advertisements from specific merchants or from selected categories. The consumer user interface program allows the consumer to redefine which merchant advertisements or category advertisements each individual consumer wishes to receive. During the connection with the consumer user browser program the commerce server not only provides the above-identified advertisements, but collects statistics with regard to previously provided merchant and category advertisements that have been accessed by the consumer.
In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, the commerce server also provides for interaction with the merchant allowing the merchant to sign up and register, as well as to purchase advertisement slots for specific merchant or category advertisements, and associated key words with those advertisements.
In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, the commerce server also provides merchants with the ability to publish advertisements, get reports based upon the statistics collected from the consumer user interface program, and to edit the merchant""s profile on the commerce server.
In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, the merchant is provided with a means to publish advertisements on the commerce server via the world wide web and to establish an interface for customers to access the merchant customer support.
In accordance with yet another embodiment of the present invention, the commerce server provides a centrally managed site for merchant advertisement information that is accessible worldwide by consumers.
In accordance with yet another embodiment of the present invention, the commerce server keeps current advertisement information available so that consumers can access the commerce server and retrieve only the latest advertisements from particular merchants or in particular categories.
In yet another embodiment of the present invention, the consumer user interface program supports the ability of the consumer to search for merchant advertisement or category advertisement based on key words and store names.
In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, the commerce server also provides the ability to track consumer advertisement statistics across the entire consumer base.
In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, the consumer user browser program allows the consumer to register with particular merchant""s advertisements listed by category.
In accordance with yet another embodiment, the consumer user browser program allows the consumer to search merchant advertisements or category advertisements by key word categories and stores.
In accordance with yet another embodiment of the present invention, the consumer user interface browser program allows for the user to preselect favorite merchants or categories in which to receive advertisements.
In accordance with yet another embodiment of the present invention, the consumer user interface browser program allows the consumer to decide what type of advertisements to automatically retrieve.
In accordance with yet another embodiment of the present invention, the consumer user interface browser program allows the consumer to subscribe to a particular merchant for advertisements.
In accordance with yet another embodiment of the present invention, the consumer user interface browser program provides the consumer the ability to filter advertisements based upon category and merchant.
In accordance with another embodiment of the present invention, the consumer user interface browser program captures statistics on advertisement effectiveness on the consumer and provides the statistics to the merchant while still protecting the privacy of each particular consumer.